OSyM Participants

    • Type of Researcher
    Members
    Alexander Mauro
    Organismal Biologist
    Graduate Student
    Colorado State University
    amauro@colostate.edu
    The Evolutionary Ecology of Ranges
    Twitter
    Research Summary

    My research focuses on a question that has been of great interest to evolutionary biologists since the inception of the field: why does natural selection not select for greater environmental tolerance and hence greater ranges? I investigate this question by studying what sets the range limits of two species of guppies on the island of Trinidad. My research can be broken up into three main themes:1) Tradeoffs between ecologically relevant traits​ can set range limits. I'm currently investigating how competition and salinity tolerance tradeoff by studying guppy behavior, growth, and gene expression during a simulated saltwater invasion, 2) Once a population moves past its range and enters a novel environment, the type of phenotypic plasticity the population exhibits will influence ​its persistence in and adaptation to the new environment. I'm investigating this dynamic in the classic high-predation, low-predation guppy system, & 3) Gene flow from other populations can "swamp" out adaptive alleles and prevent local adaptation & set range limits. To investigate this I'm conducting a population genomics study on guppies in 3 estuarine rivers in collaboration with the Whitehead Lab at UC Davis.


    Biographical Info

    I am an evolutionary ecologist and 4th year PhD candidate in the Ghalambor lab at Colorado State. For my PhD I’m investigating what prevents guppies from expanding their ranges in the estuaries of Trinidad to better understand the adaptive process. I use a combination of genetics, behavior, and ecological studies to do this. As an undergrad, I worked on animal behavior, biomechanics, and eomorphology projects while at Claremont McKenna College. In addition to research goals, I also aim to have an active outreach program and currently accomplish this by guest-teaching “guppy” labs in local middle schools and high schools (I also coach middle school cross country!).


    Christina McDonald
    Biomechanic
    Graduate Student Researcher
    Georgia Tech
    Bhamla Lab
    cmcdonald45@gatech.edu
    Research Summary

    Insect biomechanics (planthopper nymph aerial righting)


    Biographical Info

    Bioengineering PhD Student at Georgia Tech working in Dr. Saad Bhamla's lab


    Kerry McGowan
    Organismal Biologist
    Graduate Student
    Washington State University
    kerry.mcgowan@wsu.edu
    Twitter
    Research Summary

    The core question in my research is how organisms adapt to extreme environments. I work on a poeciliid fish species complex that lives in several freshwater drainages in southern Mexico. Populations of this species have also successfully colonized nearby springs rich in hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas lethal to most metazoans at low concentrations. I am interested in elucidating the genetic mechanisms underlying the adaptations in these fish living in sulfidic conditions and how their adaptation strategies differ looking across different springs. One area that I am focusing on is understanding changes in the regulatory networks that control the expression of genes related to hydrogen sulfide detoxification and aerobic metabolism. My research aims to discover candidate regulatory genes that control these processes in poeciliid fishes living in sulfidic environments by using differential gene expression, gene set enrichment analyses, and network analyses.


    Biographical Info

    I am a third year Ph.D. student at Washington State University under the mentorship of Dr. Joanna Kelley. I am broadly interested in evolutionary genomics, population genetics, and adaptation to extreme environments.

    I received my B.S. in Biology from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. I was fortunate to be introduced to research through the mentorship of Dr. Erika Iyengar during my time at Muhlenberg. I was also a participant in the University of Washington's Research Experience for Undergraduates at Friday Harbor Laboratories researching intertidal epibiosis. After graduating from Muhlenberg, I interned at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in the Departments of Entomology and Invertebrate Zoology. Before enrolling as a graduate student at Washington State University, I served two terms as an AmeriCorps member in Flagstaff, AZ and Seattle, WA.


    Benjamin McInroe
    Biomechanic, Engineer, Modeler, Organismal Biologist
    PhD Candidate
    University of California, Berkeley
    bmcinroe@berkeley.edu
    Website
    Research Summary

    I'm interested in how organisms adapt their locomotion strategies in response to dynamic and changing physical environments. My work has used mudskipper fish as living analogues for the vertebrate invasion of land, rapid intertidal burrowing in Pacific mole crabs, and terrestrial reorientation maneuvers in lizards to reveal biophysical principles of multifunctionality and adaptation. A significant component of my PhD research is focused on developing new mathematical and computational approaches that combine data-driven modeling and dynamical systems theory to reveal compositional mechanisms of adaptive behaviors in their ecological context..


    Biographical Info

    I received a BS in physics, with a minor in mathematics, from Georgia Tech in 2015, where I worked with Prof. Dan Goldman. I am currently a PhD candidate in biophysics at UC Berkeley working with Prof. Robert Full.


    Elyse McMahon
    Organismal Biologist
    PhD student
    Pennsylvania State University
    ekm5112@gmail.com
    Twitter
    Research Summary

    I study how personality is associated with different physiological mechanisms. My overarching goal is to better understand why we see population variation from the perspective of studying the individual. My current research is conducted in laboratory settings which allows me to study interacting physiological mechanisms in controlled environments. I currently study acute stress responses in autonomic and endocrine systems, innate and adaptive immune function, gut microbiome diversity, and neuronal function. By collecting these cross-physiological system data, I can determine the networks that underlie behavioral phenotypes.


    Biographical Info

    I am a third year PhD student at Penn State University. I study how physiological mechanisms interact and are associated with personality. My lab asks questions to understand why we see differences between individuals and to better understand life-long fitness and health consequences from these physiological differences. My goals are to better understand why we see population variation and understand the mechanisms allowing flexibility or stability in changing environments. To answer this question, I plan to study different physiological systems and create an integrated physiological profile to understand underlying mechanisms that result in varying fitness and health outcomes.


    Nancy McNamara
    Engineer
    Tester
    AWP
    nancy.rhodes.mcnamara@gmail.com
    Research Summary

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    Biographical Info

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    Monica Medina
    Organismal Biologist
    Professor
    Penn State University
    Penn State University
    momedinamunoz@gmail.com
    Medina Lab
    Twitter
    Research Summary

    My research projects integrate several levels of organization from cellular to ecosystem level. Currently, the research in my laboratory focuses on interaction biology of cnidarian holobiont members at ecological and evolutionary scales though more recently I have started to pivot towards conservation biology, social sciences, and policy in the marine realm and local and global scales.


    Biographical Info

    Mónica trained as a marine biologist at the University of Miami. She did a first postdoc at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA on evolution of eukaryotes and a second postdoc at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Mónica took a research scientist position at the Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, CA where she started her work on coral genomics. After 8 years at the University of California Merced, she relocated to Penn State University where she is a Professor of Biology.


    Laura Miller
    Biomechanic, Modeler, Organismal Biologist
    Professor
    University of Arizona
    Department of Mathematics
    lauram9@math.arizona.edu
    Miller Lab at the University of Arizona
    Research Summary

    The focus of the Miller Lab is to investigate changes in the fluid dynamic environment of organisms as they grow or shrink in size over evolutionary or developmental time. In particular, we are interested in the efficiency of various mechanisms of fluid transport and locomotion. Our approach to these problems is to use kinematic and morphometric data to design physical models and numerical simulations. These models and simulations are then used to better understand the fluid dynamic forces experienced by organisms. Our work focuses on a few of model systems: 1) flight adaptations in the smallest flying insects, such as thrips and parasitoid wasps, 2) the mechanisms of blood pumping during development in the embryonic heart and over evolutionary time in chordate hearts, and 3) feeding currents generated by the upside down jellyfish.


    Biographical Info

    Miller majored in the biological sciences at the University of Chicago, where she graduated with honors in 1995. After a master's degree in zoology at Duke University in 1999, she earned a Ph.D. in mathematics in 2004 at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University. Her dissertation, A Computational Study of Flight in the Smallest Insects, was supervised by Charles S. Peskin.

    After postdoctoral research at the University of Utah, she joined the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007, as an assistant professor of mathematics and adjunct assistant professor of biology. She became a full professor in 2018, before moving to the University of Arizona.